Advertisement
Advertisement

A glimpse into the void

Peter Goff

The small city of Dandong is making the most of what is probably one of Liaoning province's most marketable commodities: the view. Tourists flock to the city to snatch a glimpse, across the Yalu River, of life in reclusive North Korea. According to local reports, more than 80,000 tourists came to Dandong in the second half of last year, more than half from South Korea.

For 18 yuan, a boatman will take you across the wide river in a speedboat, and skim along the far bank. North Korean children splash in the brown water and smile at the visitors. Fishermen give friendly waves, while the handful of soldiers who sit around on rusty boats generally appear oblivious to the attention.

Behind them is a small Ferris wheel that never moves, and behind that lies Sinuiju, North Korea's second-largest city, with a population of 600,000.

This was the city which Pyongyang had planned to turn into a special administrative region, but the project has been in limbo since Yang Bin, the Chinese-born Dutch citizen who was appointed to run it, was jailed for 18 years on the mainland on fraud and tax evasion charges.

By night, less than a dozen lightbulbs can be seen flickering in Sinuiju, and barely a sound can be heard. Part of a bridge damaged in the Korean war still stands, and visitors can walk halfway across the river and stare into the eerie darkness.

On the Chinese side, the contrast is extreme. Dandong is awash with neon. Pop music booms out of speakers on the streets, and squawking hawkers ply stamps, coins and posters that bear the images of a smiling Dear Leader. Every second restaurant, it seems, deals in traditional Korean fare, and the menus and signs in most establishments are in Korean as well as Chinese. The South Korean tourists and traders have also caught the attention of local property developers, who are building luxury apartments along the river that boast bay windows or balconies looking out on to the enigmatic land run by Kim Jong-il.

Hundreds of companies involved in cross-border trade have also set up in Dandong. For most, the level of trade is small, but there is optimism that big opportunities will come. Local businesspeople say that if North Korea remains self-reliant, they will continue to make money as a rare window into the country. If it opens up, they are ready to grab the chances that arise.

The mood in the city is upbeat. 'Dreams come true' says the caption of a giant poster that overlooks the river, which had a proud-looking Deng Xiaoping superimposed on to the glitzy city skyline. Across the river, people are malnourished and prospects are bleak - a vivid illustration of the impact different interpretations of a common ideology can have.

Post